Governments around the world set a new record in bureaucracy busting efforts for the domestic private sector, implementing 314 business reforms over the past year, says the World Bank Group’s recently released Doing Business 2019: Training for Reform report.

The reforms, carried out in 128 economies, benefit small and medium enterprises as well as entrepreneurs, enabling job creation and stimulating private investment. This year’s reforms surpass the previous all-time high of 290 reforms two years ago.

“The private sector is key to creating sustainable economic growth and ending poverty around the world,” said World Bank Group president Jim Yong Kim.

The report finds that reforms are taking place where they are most needed, with low-income and lower middle-income economies carrying out 172 reforms. In Sub-Saharan Africa, a record number of 40 economies implemented 107 reforms, a new best in number of reforms for a third consecutive year for the region. The Middle East and North Africa region scaled a new high with 43 reforms.

Forty of the region’s 48 economies implementing at least one reform, compared to the previous high of 37 economies two years ago. The region is home to four of this year’s top 10 improvers – Togo, Kenya, Côte d'Ivoire and Rwanda. While reforms in the region were wide-ranging, many improvements focused on easing property registration and resolving insolvency.